Monday, December 29, 2008

A question whose answer is more complicated and subjective than would appear at first glance. Film Noir, like pornography, is difficult to define, but I know it when I see it. :)

While sparing the gentle reader and my typing fingers a lengthy discourse on the subject, for which, for those interested, I recommend the excellent wikipedia article on the subject, I think the genre can be characterized, if not defined by the following criteria, not all of which are necessarily present in a given film. You can't call these rules, since the exceptions outnumber the examples. They must be considered typical characteristics.

A dark, gloomy world view tinged with mistrust, cynicism, and a sense of the absurd.

Deliberate dramatic use of light and shadow.

Moral ambivalence of the major characters, who tend to come to a bad end.

Low or modestly budgeted - B movies either literally or in spirit.

An excellent example of mid-40s noir is Detour (1945), which cost $117,000 to make when the average budget for a Hollywood feature was around $600,000. Even at that modest cost, it came in 30% over budget.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Those of you interested in classic movie images should check out the new feature of google images. It can be accessed by going to http://images.google.com/ and entering a search term followed by the phrase "source:life" i.e. Ingrid Bergman source:life

My goal in starting this blog is to share my love of vintage movie star photos. I have been collecting these photos, especially photos of Gloria Grahame, for many years. As I have time, I hope to start a Gloria Grahame photo archive, sharing the hundreds of Gloria photos I have collected over the years. Here's a quick one to get started.

Original content copyright 2008-2017 by Mark A Clark
No rights are claimed or implied for images shown herein. Individual photos may be reposted without permission. Providing credit and a link to this blog is always appreciated, but not required.